Drinan's courage, commitment recalled

WASHINGTON -- The Rev. Robert Drinan , a Roman Catholic priest who was forced to choose between the priesthood and a career as a Massachusetts congressman, was remembered yesterday by colleagues in the clergy and the Congress as a man who committed his life to advancing human rights and justice.

Drinan, a former Boston College administrator who died Sunday at age of 86, was the first priest to win election to the House of Representatives, where he served from 1971 to 1981. One of the chamber's most liberal lawmakers, Drinan became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War and an architect of the effort to impeach President Richard M. Nixon.

Despite his faith, Drinan supported abortion rights -- a controversial stance that put him at odds with his church and underscored Drinan's competing commitments to his faith and to the voters in his progressive Massachusetts district.

"On the immensely painful subject of abortion, there was conflict and tension, a conflict I wish neither to minimize or to revisit, but only to put in the context of a common concern for the well-being of women and children in a society racked by moral disagreement," said the Rev. John Langan , who delivered the homily at Drinan's funeral yesterday at the Church of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga in Washington.

But Langan expressed an understanding of Drinan's political views on the issue, despite the opposition of the church. The shape of legislation, he said, "can be a matter for prudential disagreement, not an issue of faithfulness."

Drinan left Congress after five terms, when Pope John Paul II gave him an ultimatum in 1980: Leave political office or leave the priesthood.

Drinan said he chose to leave politics "with regret and pain." He became a professor of international human rights, legal ethics, and constitutional law at Georgetown University Law Center, a job he performed with enthusiasm and passion for 26 years until his death.

In a eulogy to her former colleague, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , Democrat of California, recalled Drinan's dedication to the House and noted that even decades after leaving politics, he still kept a politician's interest in the institution. Just weeks before he died of pneumonia and congestive heart failure, Drinan celebrated a Mass at Trinity College, Pelosi's alma mater, in honor of the children of Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur.

Pelosi, moved by Drinan's exhortation to make the welfare of children a foreign policy objective, inquired about getting a copy of her former colleague's remarks. She was told he had already sent them along to her -- accompanied by a request that she put it in the Congressional Record. Pelosi did so earlier this week.

When Drinan left Capitol Hill, Pelosi added, "he knew that Massachusetts would be in the good hands of [Senator Edward M.] Kennedy," the Bay State's senior senator and a good friend of Drinan's.

"And I know that he was happy to know that the [congressional] district would be in the good hands of Barney Frank ," Pelosi added . Frank was one of many lawmakers at the service yesterday, including several members of the Massachusetts delegation.

In his remarks, Kennedy lauded Drinan as a courageous colleague who was relentless in his battle for human rights and boldly took on a president, filing the initial impeachment resolution against Nixon in 1973. "He demonstrated constantly that each of us has the capacity to work for change and have an impact, and he did it by example -- through his service, his faith and ministry, and his writings and his passion for education," Kennedy said.

Recalling Drinan's opposition to the Vietnam War, Kennedy alluded to the ongoing war in Iraq, "We miss him more than ever in the halls of Congress today, when that history is repeating itself."

Others spoke about how Drinan traveled the world in defense of human rights, visiting Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, and the Sudan. "Bob understood that human dignity is not contingent on the whims of the state," said Georgetown University's president, John DeGioia . Drinan, he said, made it his mission to tell the stories "that those in power would not or could not hear."

Drinan served on the boards of numerous groups dedicated to human rights, including the International League for Human Rights, Human Rights First, Bread for the World, the Council for a Livable World Education Fund, and Americans for Democratic Action. The Georgetown Law Center in October established a chair in human rights in Drinan's name to honor him for his half-century of work.

Langan joked that, "I do not know what purgatory will be like for Bob," but said Drinan would discover "a jurisdiction where justice can be done without lawyers and where the administration is always good and beyond impeachment."

Until the end of his life, Drinan "remained splendidly and eccentrically himself," continuing his work on law and human rights, Langan said. "As he said to me in what turned out to be our final conversation, 'I do not sleep in the daytime.' "

The family has asked that memorial contributions be sent to the Peace Pac, in care of the Council for a Livable World, or to the Georgetown Law Center's chair in human rights.